Reverse the Universe
by ye'oldsoomin
Summary: The Hollow within Ichigo is still lurking with the war approaching. While training the Vizairds, Ichigo finds a mirror in the training area and is transported to a world opposite to his! Now in the middle of two wars, which world will Ichigo fight for?
1. Prologue

Training. That was what Ichigo was born and made to do. Train to fight and get stronger to defeat his foes. And when those foes became stronger than him, he'll just get even stronger and defeat them in some life threatening training. Repeat the process until nothing was left to defeat him. It astounded the Hollow that such a young kid like Ichigo had the ability to even surpass a god or even greater, whatever that was.

But as of now, the child was still weaker than the Hollow. And he was now looking for some a new way to become stronger by taking his Hollow powers as his own. Even though he did win the inner battle with him and the Hollow, he would never gain full access to its powers. Only because, not even the strongest of Kings can go into battle if he didn't trust his horse.

* * *

"Keep fighting! And don't lose focus on your mask!" Hiyori yelled. Ichigo couldn't believe how hard keeping his Hollow mask on was. The Vizards made it seem like it was all second nature. But they did have years of experience with this training.

Another second later, the Hollow mask on Ichigo's face faded away. The blond midget flashed step in front of him and punched him into the ground.

"Thirty minutes!" a man with silver hair yelled from the sidelines.

"Stupid Baldy! You have to keep focus! Do it again!"

"Relax Hiyori. Just let the kid rest a bit. He's still a high school student. And he can still hold it longer than you ever could," Shinji sighed, annoyed by the younger girl's high pitched and loud voice. The Vizard leader stood up from the rock he was observing from and was knocked down by one of her sandals.

The fanged girl, Hiyori, huffed and walked away from her "student" in a mix of emotions. Mostly anger and rage, but those who had lived with the beast could see that she held a tiny amount of pity in her expression.

The other blond teenager sighed once more while he recovered from being hit by evil footwear and walked back towards his the beastly girl in an attempt to calm her down some more. It would also give Ichigo a chance to rest up a bit before the next session. Though he doubt that the teenager would receive any sort of relaxation at all. The war was arriving quickly and they had accomplished almost nothing for the past month. Shinji could only hope that Ichigo was at a steep learning curve again. After the war, he had always had the feeling that the the student was keeping something from them. He also felt that it was odd that Ichigo came back willingly to train some more with them even though it took a massive effort for him to come and join them in the first time around.

In the meanwhile, Ichigo had only just begun to rest when he remembered about his Hollow lurking deep within his soul and the thought of it possessing him once more. He immediately shot up, ready for more training with the short tempered midget. When he saw no one was around, Ichigo wandered around the artificial desert in search for the Vizards. They never really did show him around the place other than where the stairs were and thus made losing his way a whole lot easier.

The substitute sighed after ten minutes of searching. They would find him eventually and then they would train. Ichigo sat down and looked around his surroundings. It was definitely a replica of the training grounds in Urahara's basement and the secret area in Soul Society. The only difference was the strange aura this place had. It had a strange mixture of Hollow and Shinigami reiatsu. But now that Ichigo could focus on it more intently, there was something else in the mix. It was small, but when Ichigo could pinpoint exactly where it was, it began to try to smolder his existence. It died down soon after, but was still traceable by the substitute Soul Reaper.

The source of the powerful and strange reiatsu was beneath him. Curious to what it was, he began digging. One foot down and Ichigo found a mirror. It was a normal two-sided mirror with a small crack that started in the middle and ended on the left side. Ichigo could only guess that Hiyori had thrown in Shinji's head at one point and he hid it so the action wouldn't be repeated.

The orange haired teen sighed and wondered where the Vizards were. For once, he actually missed their company. He began cleaning the mirror out of sheer boredom. Suddenly, the unknown reiatsu began to appear again. The mirror began feeding on Ichigo's spiritual pressure and soon began releasing a strange aura.

"Shinji! I found him!" Lisa yelled, unknown to Ichigo at the time. Her eyes widen as she saw what was in the high schooler's hand. She rushed forward to release his grip on the mirror, but was too late. In a flash of light, Ichigo had disappeared.

One by one, the rest of the banished group appeared. All of them regretting for leaving the newest member of their "family" alone.

"Lisa, where is he?" Shinji asked.

"The mirror. He had the mirror and then disappeared," Lisa answered, staring where Ichigo was before he disappeared. In his place was a small crater and the two sided mirror, now broken in half.

Shinji looked nervous though, all of them were equally shocked at the news.

"Get Urahara. He should know exactly where he is," the blond leader ordered. Mashiro was the first to leave and get the shopkeeper. Six other members were already out searching, making sure that Ichigo didn't just disappear to fight against the newly arrived Arrancar.

Hiyori was the only who stayed behind with Shinji.

"Stupid baldy. I knew we should have just let the kid get eaten by his Hollow," she commented.

"That kid better stay alive until we save him. Because, we might not stand a chance in the war without him," the leader said and disappeared to find the shopkeeper.

* * *

A/N: This is going to be a role-reversal and alternate dimension traveling fic. Please review and tell me what you think of it!

EDIT: The summary now matches the story. Stupid me. Sorry to all that were confused. And I just noticed this. Wow.


	2. Chapter 1

"I'm going to school! And I'll be working late too, so don't hold dinner up!" the eldest Kurosaki called out.

"What? That's the third time this week! You really have to stop working so hard or else you're going to starve to death! Really, you act like the world is going to end if you don't do your summer job!" his sister called back.

The teenager laughed at the irony at that statement and left the house. Luckily the only parent of the house wasn't around to annoy him for a reason he didn't care about and gave him no problem of leaving. It looked as if it was going to be a pretty good day. In fact the day was going so well, he actually had to wonder if this was a dream.

"Hey, Hollow, don't you have any comments about this? Anything at all?"

No one was around to answer.

"Hey! I know you're angry at me for last night, but you still don't have to give me the silent treatment," To a normal human, all they would see would be a teenage boy walking down the street talking to himself. To a spiritually aware human or any spirit being at all, they would still see the same thing.

"Okay, fine! Just stay angry at me! Don't complain when I let-"

The atmosphere around him suddenly turned very heavy and became almost impossible to breathe in. It settled down after a bit, but his lungs were still hurting. It was no mistake that it was reiatsu causing all of this. And from what he could tell, it was a Shinigami's.

He checked his watch. It didn't really matter to him if he was late or not, but it would worry his friends who were waiting for him in the classroom. He brought out a candy dispenser reluctantly and brought it to his lips. Pushing the rabbit head decorated on top of it, a green pill popped out and into his mouth. The young adult swallowed it and fell forward slightly. Another version of the boy appeared out from the body, this time in a black kimono and a sword attached to his back.

"Stay there! And look normal!" the soul version of the young adult ordered. The body nodded happily and leaned against a pole and began to read a magazine upside down. The soul version of the boy shook his head at the attempt the mod soul tried to look "casual" and refocused his attention on the powerful spiritual energy. He could train that thing later.

As the high schooler reached the source of the powerful spiritual pressure, he could only hope that Kenpachi hasn't landed here yet. He wasn't in the mood nor had the time to fight someone that deranged.

"Ugh," The source seemed to have fallen from the sky at a hundred miles per hour. From that, the high school student could definitely tell that it wasn't a representative from Soul Society, unless they were testing out a new way to land in the World of the Living. The figure from the crater stood up and out of instinct, the Kurosaki sibling brought out Zangetsu.

"Where am I?" When the now identified teenager lifted his head, the oldest Kurosaki sibling relaxed his grip on his blade and placed it behind his back. He reach over to help the fallen visitor up to his feet and out of the hole he just created. When they succeeded on that task, the older brother could only sigh at the work he would have to do to fill that hole up later.

The amber eyes of the unknown teenager found their way to the person in front of him. When they finally began to focus, the teenager jumped away.

"Why are you here?" He yelled angrily as he brought out his weapon.

"What do you mean why I'm here? I live here! My question is how you got here. I didn't know that you could get out of that inner world. And you always complain that I don't let you out enough," he commented, pulling out his sword again in case he needed it. It seemed like this was going to get aggressive.

"Your inner world? You're the Hollow!"

"Me a Hollow? Are you okay? Maybe I should get Aizen and-" he didn't get time to finish his advice. The unknown Death God charged at him with a sword similar to his own. Only difference were that the colors were reverse. But the power difference between them was great. Something was either wrong with his Hollow and it made him wearker, or he gotten a lot more powerful than the last time they sparred.

"Ichigo! Just stay calm! It's me Shiro! Remember?" he called out, "Is this some kind of weird test Zangetsu is putting us through again? Because this really isn't the time!" He pushed back with his sword and effectively gained more distance between him and red head.

In the distance, a school bell rung telling him that he was late for school again. The albino cursed silently and looked back at the orange haired teen. Now that he could examine him more closely, he could see the differences from his Hollow and the strange visitor. His eyes were brown and white, contrast to the usual gold and black. He looked more tired and had bags under his eyes. The orange hair seemed to have dimmed a bit and he had a lot more scars than the albino had.

"Since when was your name Shiro?" he asked while observing his every move.

"Since I was born?" the pale Death God answered. "What's wrong with you, Ichigo?"

"When did you start calling me Ichigo? And you're the Hollow!" the orange haired teenager yelled and went into another fighting position. The albino examined his opponent's stance and saw so many openings that he wondered if he really was a Shinigami at all. His grip on Zangetsu was too tight and his control on his Spiritual Pressure was nonexistent. There was no way he going to survive in here, especially not with the war just around the corner.

_School can wait. This guy needs to see Aizen as soon as possible._ Shiro thought and began to walk over. He didn't manage to walk any closer seeing how red head had attempted to kill him.

"Look, I'll put down Zangetsu and make myself completely defenseless. Then we can go see a friend of mine and sort this whole thing out, okay?" Shiro wrapped his sword in its cloth and attached it to his back. He smiled when he saw the doppelganger repeating the action with his own sword. His eyes still watched him carefully and the glare was making the high school student uncomfortable.

"Uh, yeah, let's go," Shiro said awkwardly and led the way. Ichigo followed, but always stayed nine feet away.

_Seriously, I met the guy three minutes ago and he already hates me. Must be a new record, _The albino thought and Flash Stepped towards where his body was.

* * *

Ichigo couldn't understand the situation he was in right now. One second, he was in the Vizards' hideout and the next he was in Karakura Town, or at least some kind of twisted version of it. Somehow the world turned upside down and his Hollow was in the human world acting as if he was one and not deranged like he's normally is. And now he was leading him to Aizen who, for some reason, would know what to do in this situation.

"Hey! Is anyone here?" the albino called out. The store strangely reminded him of the shop Sandal Hat had, but was still different in some way. When the substitute walked through the door, he saw that the store was brighter and had a wide variety of sweets. The floor was tiled and seemed to be freshly mopped. Curious, he wandered over to a section of PEZ candy dispensers and found that they were actually just soul candy dispensers. Though instead of a bunny top like Ichigo expected, they candy dispensers had on top a lion head winking.

"Shiro? That you over there? Aren't you missing school right now?" Ichigo froze and dropped the dispenser from shock. That voice could only be one person.

"Yeah, but that's not really important right now. I found someone and he kind needs help," the pale teenager explained and turned around, but didn't find the strange boy anywhere.

"Huh, where did he-" Shiro stopped and stared at the scene. The kid was fast, he had to admit. But even his speed couldn't outmatch Gin's superhuman reaction time.

The inverted Zangetsu of the orange haired kid had tried to slash the silver haired shopkeeper in half from the waist, but Gin's Shinso blocked it with ease.

"Eh? You didn't tell me that it was a Shinigami, Shiro. Though, he isn't that good of one. How long have you been dead?" Gin asked.

Ichigo relaxed and put Zangetsu back on his back. He made a mental note that he shouldn't attack everyone he sees and took a deep breath to relieve himself of his instincts telling him to kill the man in front of him.

"I'm not dead, I'm still alive," Ichigo replied .

"Hmm, I'll go see if Aizen is awake then," the fox captain smiled and walked to the back room. Shiro sighed in relief. Ichigo looked back for a second, as if checking that Gin wouldn't make a sneak attack, and then looked back at the albino.

"So, you're a human too?" Shiro asked, trying to release some of the tension in the air.

The look-a-like didn't answer and looked the other direction. The pale high school teenager sighed and wondered what was his deal. He almost expected his Hollow to make some kind of comment about it, but suddenly remembered that his Hollow was in some kind of childish temper tantrum and refused to speak to him. He checked his watch to see that he could still make it to school after only missing first period. Ichigo obviously didn't like him being nearby, but if he left him alone with Aizen, Gin, and god forbid if Tousen comes along, he wouldn't have a tutor anymore.

"Alright Gin. I'll come out. But you better have a good reason as to why-" a calm voice that echoed in the shop stopped suddenly as a man wearing glasses came out. "Hello there. You must be Shiro's friend that Gin was speaking about," He held out a hand indicating that he was friendly.

Ichigo never understood. Instead he mistook it for some kind of attack and brought out his sword. Not caring that he could die at this moment he charged forward attempting to slice the man in half. The man smiled and blocked the sword with a single finger. The teen was brought back to moment when he had first met the traitor captain and jumped back before the man could lay a finger on his sword.

"See Aizen, told ya' he's crazy. But then again, he is a Shinigami," Gin smiled.

"No, he's different. His stance is not an ordinary Shinigami would use. Neither is that sword. Doesn't it look awfully similar to Shiro's before your interference with it? Tell me, friend of Shiro, who are you and why are you trying to kill my loyal workers and myself?"

Ichigo had a strong urge to just pull out his mask and destroy the whole entire shop but dismissed it and regained his composure. He took another deep breath to pull his thoughts away from killing the man who almost destroyed Soul Society and almost managed to kill his friends and made him into the monster he was now. Another breath, just in case.

"I'm waiting. Why don't you start with your name?" Aizen smiled smugly.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," the red head introduced. He could feel the albino's confusion rise, but decided to ignore it.

"Kurosaki? As in the older brother of two young girls?" Aizen waited for Ichigo to nod his head confirming the information. The brunette smiled and said, "I see then. You are not from this 'world', are you?" the glasses wearing shopkeeper asked. Ichigo, who never had his gaze leave Aizen, wondered how he knew that so quickly.

"How did you know?"

"Yeah, Aizen-san, how did you know? Not even fox face over there could have figured that out that quickly," Shiro asked. The pale teen was unusually quiet during the conversation. The brunette decided to ask him about that later.

"Actually, I had my assumptions about him. Should I get the device, Aizen-taichou?" Gin asked. Aizen allowed him and watched as the young worker walked to the storage room.

"You see, long ago, I began researching on parallel dimensions. I theorized that if one of the dimensions faced the same predicament we were in, then they might be able to aid us in the Winter War," Aizen observed that Ichigo had flinched as he said Winter War, "Soon after, I given up on the project and moved onto something else. Based on my research, it had looked that traveling between dimensions was impossible. Years later, with the help of a few others, I began working on it again and found that after using a monstrous amount of reiatsu, you could communicate between dimensions,"

"So how did strawberry over there get here if we could only communicate with the other dimensions," Shiro asked.

"That is what I like to know. In different dimensions, we aren't always the same person with just different events happening around us. The person that is portraying me and my role in Ichigo's dimension might be more advanced in this study than I was. That would explain Ichigo's reaction to us and why he was attacking us. It seems that in his dimension, we are the villains though in this dimension we are just doing to keep this town safe. Am I correct?"

Ichigo nodded. "But how did you figure this out so quickly?"

"It was a simple solution to see if you know all the variables to the equation. You see, Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki already have an older brother: Shiro Kurosaki," Aizen explained. Ichigo nodded absently before the information sunk in.

His amber eyes widen and he whipped his head back to the albino teenager who smirked at his reaction and waved.

"Hey. So what, is he like my outer dimension twin or something?" The likeness between his Hollow and Shiro, physically, was almost impossible to believe. But it was the personality difference that drove the two apart. Unlike his Hollow, Shiro seemed to be more caring and less of a fighting machine. He also seemed to have more of a heart. This version of the albino reminded Ichigo more of himself than what his Hollow portrayed him as.

The hollow. Ichigo scanned for the demon's presence in his inner world. Unless the monster had done himself a favor and killed himself, he was no where to be found.

"Ichigo, is something the matter?" the brunette asked. But before he got a chance to answer, Gin came along with a very familiar mirror in his hands, minus the crack in it.

"Got it, Aizen-taichou. Took a while though. You hid it behind some really strong kido," the fox face handed the man the mirror and turned it around. The puzzle look on his face was strange to see, especially for Ichigo who knew the man for his ultimate planning techniques.

"Ah, here we go. Shiro, come here for a second. We're going to make use of your monstrous reiatsu for once. Ichigo, you come too. With both of you charging the device, we should have more than enough for it to work," Aizen beckoned for them to come forward and showed them how to hold it. He handed them the handle of the mirror and made sure that both of their hands had a tight grip on it. The mirror, which seemed different in Ichigo's opinion, seemed to be the equivalent to the spirit ball Kakaku used to send them into Soul Society. Only this device seemed to use much more reiatsu than the cannonball.

"Now keep it constant for a few more seconds. It might drain you a bit afterwards, but pay no mind to it," the glasses man ordered. Gin had begun to close the shop to make sure no one comes in. Aizen waited as the mirror glowed in power.

"Release!" he commanded and the two look-a-likes released their hold on the mirror.

"Did it work?" Shiro asked between deep breaths. Ichigo had become unconscious from the process.

"How did this guy your counterpart Shiro? He doesn't look like a war hero. He can hardly stand up now," Gin observed while lifting him to the an extra bed nearby.

"What do you mean a war hero? He's probably some kind of highschooler who was at the wrong place at the wrong time," the pale teenager said and walked towards Aizen.

"Not too sure, Shiro-chan. He is your counterpart, say Aizen. If there's a war in his world too, he's probably the hero then," Gin smiled and tucked the teen tightly. Shiro stopped in mid step began thinking. He turned around to ask something, but was interrupted by a loud static noise. The albino turned his head to see the mirror behaving a lot like a television with static.

"And we have a connection," Aizen smiled and waited for the glass clear.

* * *

"And you sure this is going to work?"

"Shinji-san, you say that as if you doubt me!"

"Shut it! Is is going to to work or not?"

Urahara, who was currently recovering from a minor nose bleed, smiled and activated the mirror. It was good to know that his old lieutenant hadn't lost her unique charm throughout the years,

"It's going to work for sure. As I was explaining before, Ichigo is in an alternate dimension to ours. If I can just contact my counterpart in that dimension, then we should get this matter sorted out before we know it. And just before the Winter War too!" the blond ex-captain smiled and flipped concentrated his reiatsu on the mirror.

"Urahara, it's doing something!"

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Oh! Let me see! Hello?"

"Get away from that thing fox face! You're going to break it!"

"I would never! That means seven years of bad luck for me!"

The group of Vizards raised an eyebrow at the voices. They all sounded vaguely familiar, and yet sounded like they were completely different people. As the glass finally began to clear up and the first thing they noticed was Ichigo laying down in unconscious.

"Che, figures that baldy will die the second he get's in there," Hiyori smirked.

The mirror was turned very slowly and reveled a very stunning face. The Vizards began taking out their swords, but were stopped by request of Urahara.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise, for all of us I suppose," Aizen smiled. Shinji growled and stole the mirror from Urahara.

"What are you doing with Ichigo? Why is he unconscious? And what are you doing there?"

"Shinji? Is that you? And you cut your hair? I thought you cherished it so much that no ordinary pair of scissors would be able to trim it?" the brunette was stunned by the appearance of his previous captain..

"What are you talking about? You cut it in the first place!"

"Now Shinji-san, please don't overreact. Remember that this is my counterpart. It seems, though, that in their world, Aizen is actually a good guy and not the overlord you remember him being," Urahara attempted to relax the blond ex-captain to some extent.

"He is correct. And I think that you were calling to see if Ichigo had landed here?" the fake Aizen asked. They nodded in response.

"Yes, and I see that he is exhausted. Did anything happen while he was there?" the blond shopkeeper asked. He kept a watchful eye on the group behind. Most looked ready to destroy their only connection to Ichigo should Aizen slip up and say something that could agitate them.

"He just overexerted himself when charging the mirror over here. I suppose that the mirror in your world was already filled to the brim with his reiatsu when you first tried calling me,"

"That is right. Well, then please contact me when he awaken. Have fun with Kurosaki-san!" Urahara finished and was about to hang up when another voice called out to him.

"Is that Urahara? No wait! Stop! I'm going to kill him for all that he's done to us and-" the mirror stopped, thankfully for the shopkeeper. He really didn't want to hear the end of that sentence.

"Well, is that all you need?" Urahara asked and was smacked in the head by the evil footwear once more.

"What do you mean is that all? Ichigo is still in there! So get your bald butt working on a way to get him out!"

"I can't,"

The Vizards froze.

"What do you mean, 'I can't'? You're invention caught him there!"

"Ichigo is stuck there. There is no possible way for me to get him back. He's going to have to do this on his own," Urahara blocked his face with his fan. His hat overshadowed his eyes as a dark atmosphere rose over them.

"And why is that?" Shinji asked.

"Because the only one who could possibly help him, is Aizen's counterpart in that world,"

* * *

And the first real chapter is finished. Sorry about any misconceptions about the last chapter. This story is taking place during the Winter War arc. (Sorry for anyone I told that this was post-war. I thought I changed it, but I guess I really didn't.) I hoped that this chapter didn't disappoint anyone. And if anyone is confused with the dimensions, tell me so I can clear it up. Thanks for reading and please Review!


	3. Chapter 2

The Vizards were silent for a little bit and allowed the information to sink in. If Aizen was a good guy and Urahara's counterpart in that universe, then that would mean Aizen's counterpart would be...

"No. There is no way that you're going to let Ichigo go find yourself in that alternate universe. There's no way we'll agree to that," Shinji stated, his eyes desperately searching the shopkeeper's face for any sign that this was some kind of test for them to pass.

"There isn't any other way, Shinji-san. My evil self is the only one who could possibly have the information and resources to build some kind of portal back here. But even this one chance is close to slim and none,"

Shinji shook his head, refusing to believe anything else. But before he could say anything else, Lisa spoke up.

"If Ichigo were to visit you in Hueco Mundo, he would have a lot of trouble getting there. He hasn't master any of his Hollow training and to be honest, he isn't that sturdy as a Shinigami. And it doesn't look as if the people there would be willing to get close to your counterpart without maiming him,"she said.

"I think you're missing the point to this alternate universe. You see in this universe, the enemy isn't Hueco Mundo and the Hollows, it's actually-"

"Hey traitor! Are you there? Berry head is awake," the group of exiles turned their attention to the mirror.

"Shiro, you shouldn't say that. You know what Aizen said. Urahara is a good guy, well, semi-good guy in that world,"

"Whatever fox face. I'll be heading back to school then. I'll be back later for training," Doors were heard closing in the background and followed by a somewhat annoyed sigh. Urahara grabbed the mirror and held it so that all could see what was happening.

"Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that boy's head," Aizen was brought into the mirror's vision, "Ichigo, could you follow him? He'll be back here anyway, but I think it might be best that you get to know each other first. It does seems like you're going to be here for a while," the good Aizen asked. The doors opened and closed again, confirming that Ichigo had already left the shop. At first, Shinji was going to throw a fit, saying that he shouldn't have let Ichigo go so easily, but he was stopped by the serious look on the man's face.

"I trust that you have already told the Vizards in your world what Ichigo must do to return, am I correct?" Aizen asked. Gin was seen in the background, playing with some kind of radio set. Kensei couldn't help but feel that someone was missing from this little group, but he couldn't think of who.

"Yes. But I'm afraid they disagree with the idea and wish to discuss it more deeply with you. Please, go easy on them. The Winter War is ahead and they are a little uneasy with the fact that our Aizen is going to be so close to them," the shopkeeper smiled. His words of caution were rewarded by a slap in the face by Hiyori.

"Uneasy? We're not uneasy! We're just worried about that little punk. Didn't we just told you that he hasn't mastered his Hollow powers yet? He could die any minute in that world and then what will we do? He's the only one that hasn't seen Aizen's illusions!" the fanged girl yelled. The inventor laughed off the pain and complimented that his old lieutenant hasn't lost her charm throughout the years. Gin snickered in the background while muttering, "Somethings never change, even through dimensions" which even got a smile from Aizen. But the happy mood didn't last too long and he returned to his stoic face.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, Hueco Mundo isn't the enemy in that world," Urahara continued as the group managed to quiet down Hiyori. He waited for Aizen's confirmation on the information before going further into detail.

"What do you mean? If this is just a counterpart, then the Urahara in that universe should have gone to Hueco Mundo and have an army of espadas ready to attack Soul Soceity," Lisa asked.

"Think about it, Yadomaru-fukutaichou. If I'm here, then that would mean that Urahara wasn't banished to the World of the Living for the Hollowfication experiments. Why would he need to find and make weak Arrancars when he already has a group of people who are masters of both Shinigami and Hollow powers and his mercy," Aizen replied. The Vizards widen their eyes and stared at the brunette.

"Then that would mean..." Shinji started. His mind had already finished the sentence.

"Yes. The army we're up against isn't the same army you're against. Unlike you, we're up against the full force of Soul Society."

* * *

"Shiro Kurosaki! You're late! And may I ask for the reason?" The class was suddenly stopped once the door had opened. Everyone began staring at the student, whispering among themselves for the reason he was late.

"Saved a cat from a tree," he answered as he walked by his desk as if nothing was going on.

"Oh, and is this cat the same one that shredded up your homework, or is it the one that stole your backpack?" Ms. Ochi asked, a little agitated that her student was treating with such little respect.

"Neither. This was a mutant were-cat that escaped and was being chased down by rabid dogs that the scientist that created it sent," he answered. The class laughed at the response and the albino was quickly sent to his seat with a note that he would be in detention after school today.

Ichigo watched from a nearby window on request by Shiro. He must have noticed that Ichigo was uncomfortable in his reiatsu restrainers and allowed him to take them off, but he would have to stay outside for the time being. The other condition was that he would have to put them back on at lunch. Of course, the whole conversation would have never existed if fox face didn't put them on him while he was sleeping.

**/Flashback\\**

"I-chi-go!~ Time to wake up now! Come on! Ya' shouldn't keep sleepin'! People are waiting for you to wake up!" Gin sang out while shaking the poor boy. Ichigo decided that killing the man that instant wasn't the best idea and opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the brightness of the shop and he suddenly remembered that he wasn't in Urahara's shop anymore. The other thing he noticed was how tight his skin felt. It was as if all of his power was wrapping itself around him.

"Finally! I thought I was going to have ta bring a bucket of cold water to wake ya up. Now see these?" Gin lifted Ichigo's arm reveling a band. "They're going to make sure you don't release so much of ya' reiatsu at once. Yer still weak and it won't be any good if Shiro has to carry you every time you faint because of the lack of reiatsu," the silver haired man explained and walked away to alert Aizen. Shiro appeared from a corner with a frown on his face. For some reason, Ichigo found it a little unsettling.

"So you work with that traitor?" he asked walking towards him and sitting down next to him. It was the first time the substitute had a good look of his look-a-like. He had still had his pale complexion but his eyes were different. Instead of the Hollow eyes he would have had in his universe, they were amber with a normal white sclera. They resembled a lot of their own. He also wore clothes that seemed very familiar. As if Ichigo had let him borrow his own clothes.

"You mean Sandal Hat? Yeah, but he isn't a traitor where I come from. He's like Aizen in a way," Ichigo replied, wondering why the pale look-a-like had such a sour mood to the shopkeeper.

"Whatever. I'm going to tell him that you're awake and go to to school. Later," the albino said and walked away toward the mirror.

The red head couldn't understand the sudden change of mood, but decided that it was more of a persona reason and didn't want to get caught up in it.

**/End Flash Back\\**

The bell for lunch rang and Ichigo watched as all the students got up from their seats and walked to their friends. He was surprised to see that all of his friends followed Shiro out the classroom to have lunch together. Ichigo brought out his restrainers to put back on his wrists and followed the group up to the roof. The scene reminded him of his friends at his school. When all of this was over, he promised himself that he'll make time to hang out with everyone. He'll even hang out with Keigo.

The group had all sit down in a circle and ate their lunch in peace. Shiro seemed to be the least social along with Uryu. Keigo was babbling like an idiot as normal. Chad stayed stoic, but was listening to the story with Mizuiro. The girls were on school ground under a tree, babbling about whatever they normally talked about.

It felt strange watching over them like this. They didn't notice him, as if he was a real ghost and they weren't spiritually aware. He would had though Ishida would at least notice him, but it seemed like he didn't have the power to see spirits anymore. It must have been the reverse physics in this world. Maybe Quincies didn't exist in this universe.

"They can't see you," Shiro suddenly said causing Ichigo to come out of his train of thought. Uryu didn't seem to notice the strange comment the albino said and continued eating. "Glasses and Sado, can't see or hear you. Keigo can kind of see you, but he's mostly blind to Shinigami, especially you because of your high reiatsu. He can only see the weak Hollows, but that's because only the weak ones ever get past me. The best he can probably do is see your outline. Mizuiro is the only one who can see and hear you clearly other than me. But that's because he's a-"

"Quincy, at your service," the blue haired kid smiled, pulling out his hand. The rest of the group ignored them and continued on. Ichigo brought out his hand and shook it. It felt weird being introduced to his friends again, as if they never met him.

"So, Shiro, why do you have a Shinigami following you around everywhere?" at the sound of Shinigami, ever tensed up. Keigo stopped for a moment before going on whatever he was saying though this time he was slightly quieter and spoke at a slower pace.

"Don't worry about him. He's nothing to be scared of anyway,"

"Where did he come from then? If he's not with Soul Society, then is he an accidental like you?"

"Stop calling me an accidental," Shiro glared at the Quincy, "But he is human. See, he's from a different universe and-" At this moment Keigo took it upon himself to immediately think the exact wrong idea and cause an unneeded commotion.

"So he's like an alien! Shiro! Get away from him! He might turn you into a traitor against us! Get away alien! Run back to your mother ship and-" Shiro punched his friend to the side and successfully stopped the brunette from babbling on further nonsense.

"As I was saying, he's from a different universe from us. It's really weird though. Everything is backwards. Like Urahara is actually a good guy in his world. And Aizen, Gin, and I are all villains," the pale teenager explained. His friends began laughing as soon as he finished.

"You as a bad guy? And they haven't been obliterated yet? Sorry Shiro, but I have to say the 'you' in that universe in a total wimp. And here I thought that you were some kind of super power android you that world," Mizuiro joked and received a playful punch to the shoulder. The one thing that Ichigo found weird was that everyone knew about Shinigami and such. Perhaps telling his other friends wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

"Che. Hey, what is Mizuiro in your universe? A dog? A fish? Or is he already dead?" Shiro asked Ichigo. The red head looked from his thoughts and thought for the best words to describe his friend.

"He's human," the substitute began and had already received a few snickers from the albino, "and a womanizer," Shiro began laughing harder when he heard the last bit of information. The Quincy blushed harshly and turned away from the group to face the corner. Keigo, Sado, and Uryu looked confused at the change of mood but Shiro repeated the information and the three began laughing along with him. The Quincy yelled at his friends at how horrible they were and retreated back to his lonely corner which caused the four of them to laugh even more. Ichigo had almost felt sorry for him.

The bell rung again and students below began walking back into the building. Their own little group stood up and stretched as they prepared themselves for another session of torture. When they noticed that their pale friend wasn't going to be joining them, their eyes wandered to the sky and they waved goodbye to him before walked on without him. Mizuiro was the last to leave. He eyed Ichigo suspiciously before leaving. Shiro smirked and commented that he was a paranoid freak. He frowned but left the two of them on the roof.

"You're not going with them?" Ichigo asked. It was strange being this comfortable around someone was such a close resemblance to his Hollow but Ichigo reminded himself that it wasn't his Hollow that he was around with. It was Shiro. An ordinary teenager who just happened to be a Shinigami and not a insane fighting machine he always thought his Hollow was.

"Do you really suck that bad at sensing reiatsu? Someone's coming," Shiro replied, but didn't seemed to be worried. Ichigo didn't reply and tried to sense if anyone was coming near them.

"I don't sense anyone coming," the red head answered. The albino rose any eyebrow but didn't say anything. He walked over to the fence and looked down to the school ground.

"Hmm... I guess he ran away. Didn't think that he would be such a baby. Sorry about that. Guess it was a false alarm," Shiro apologized. There wasn't an answer. When the pale student turned around, he couldn't help but snicker. In only a minute when had turned his back, the red head had already picked himself a fight.

"Shinigami! What are you doing here?" the man asked.

"What are you doing here!" Ichigo responded, blocking the man's sword with Zangetsu. He rose it slightly causing the both of them to fly away to opposite sides of the roof. The man's vivid blue hair and broken mask was too much of a memory Ichigo could handle.

"Che. I knew that you would try to kill Shiro when you had the chance. But you're too late now! There's no way that I'm going to let you kill him before I do!" the crazed man screamed and put his hand on his zanpaktou. There was a shift in his reiatsu and suddenly the atmosphere became denser. The albino sighed at how ignorant the man was and simply walked to the arrancar while making a mental note to tell his friends to help him work on his analysis skills.

"Grind, Pan-" the phrase was interrupted by a pale hand landing on the sword. The amber eyes met with the vivid blue one. In a second, he could tell that Shiro was not pleased.

"Shiro? What are you doing?" the arrancar asked. His vision began switching between the albino who had stopped his sword and the red head who still held his own sword firmly in his grasp. At the moment, he didn't now which to hate more.

"Grimmjow, just shut up. I don't feel like explaining this to an idiot right now. He's not a part of Soul Society, at the moment, and no, I'm not crazy. Just go back to that warehouse with the others and I'll be there to explain things in after school's out, 'kay?" Grimmjow felt his jaw clenched at the thought of a Shinigami walking around freely the town doing whatever he wanted.

"How do you know he's just not going to kill you behind your back?" the catlike arrancar argued, ignoring the insult that was thrown at him. Shiro sighed at how stubborn his rival could be.

"Restrainers. He won't kill me if he can't go full blast. You can hardly beat me with your released for,"

Ichigo was seemingly forgotten for the moment, even though he was the subject of their argument. He had already released his grip on Zangetsu and allowed the blade to rest on his back. It had seem to be that even arrancars were considered allies in this world. Deciding that it was probably best he stayed out of the conversation, he allowed relaxed and watch to two argue about whether or not Ichigo was dangerous enough to be allowed to stroll around town.

"He won't be alone! I'll be with him!"

"Which will give him enough time to convince you to fight for Soul Society! And that's not something that I'd like happen!"

"He's not with Soul Society!"

"Arg! Just shut up! I'm taking both of you to Ulquiorra! Then you can tell it to him. Nel! Get up here and take out the Shinigami trash for me!" the words barely processed in Ichigo's brain when a blurry figure passed by him. He could hardly see Shiro's surprised face through the person's long green hair. The last things he heard was a childish voice yelling, "I got him Grimmy!" and he knocked out cold the next second.

* * *

Time was becoming short. But it didn't matter. Those fools back in the real world wouldn't stand a chance against the army he made in the Spirit World. Not even their ace could stop an army of people. The thought of the Oken being so close to reach made his thoughts whirl around him. All that power in his control. He could bend anyone's will with it. And then he would sit on the throne and become leader of the worlds. And made sure no one objective him.

But the boy was certainly a problem. Even if he couldn't stop an army, he could come close. And his little friends will be there to back him up. The fight won't even last an hour if he was fully determined. There had to be some kind of weakness to him. Every human had one.

"Urahara-san. I have some news for you," the feline voice came. The inventor turned around with an amused looked. It wasn't everyday that news came from his right hand.

"Oh?"

"It seems that I have finally found a weak point in Aizen's so-called army. It's actually sort of shocking. So shocking, it might just wipe that dumb grin on your face and make you put on a real one," she knew him too well. The smile was just a mask to be worn, so that everyone would trust him. They didn't know that this war would disrupt the balance between the worlds of the dead and living, well except one individual. But he was taken care of with a few rare specimen, both dead and alive.

"Is this so? Why don't we talk about it over a few snacks? I believe that Tessai brought fresh milk yesterday from a local farm," the captain smiled deviously. The feeling of ultimate power in his being was wonderful. And there was no one who would take the feeling from him.

"Always the playful one, Kisuke. But I warn you, you better stay in character after you hear this. We can't risk killing another one of our soldiers once they hear you. It was a shame that you had to kill Soi Fon. She would have been great in the war,"

"Of course, of course. That was just me being a little excited. I do hope you'll forgive me for murdering one of your own. So tell me, Yoruichi, what is this weakness you were talking about before?" the were cat smiled to her childhood friend.

Once she had finished sharing the information, Urahara couldn't think of another time he was happier.


	4. Chapter 3

"Grimmjow! I order you to let me down right now!" Shiro yelled for the fifth time and struggled to release himself from the bluenette's strong grip around him without severely injuring himself. He tried to turn his head and try to persuade the green haired girl he knew that was following to help him, but he had found her already babbling to the unconscious look-a-like non-stop. And from there, he knew that she would be no help.

Now that he thought about it, Orithime should really meet Nel someday after all of this is over. They'll probably be good friends. No, the both of them would get hurt if the other espadas see them hanging out together. They already don't approve about of me being trained by Aizen. But it still would be fun to see Grimmjow die from Orithime's food poisoning.

"Hey freak, you still awake in there?" Grimmjow asked with a hint of concern. It was rare for the albino to be spacing out like this.

"If I say yes, will you let me go?"

"Yeah right, like that would ever happen," the feline arrancar smirked and began to speed up with his Sonido. Nel, after finding herself all alone with the Shinigami, followed but stayed at least ten feet away from the chaotic arrancar. Shiro envied her. Being carried like this was degrading and he dreaded the day when his Hollow would decide to look through the memories of this day. He wouldn't hear the end of it. If only that Hollow would get over this stupid argument and begin talking to him again.

_Ichigo, you in still in there?_ He wasn't surprised to not hear an answer. The Hollow within had been quiet all day and he was so sure anymore that it was about letting a weak Hollow get a hit on him from the night before.

The likeness between the sudden visitor Shinigami and his Hollow were scary, but even more so was the name selection. He wouldn't be surprised that their names both meant "He Who Protects" seeing how naming a boy "strawberry" would be an odd thing to do. It wasn't like he was one to talk though. His mom named him after the polar opposite of his personality. "Kind One"? What a joke. That was why he was called Shiro. He didn't like it, but at least it fits him. White, just like his skin, Shinigami uniform, sword, hair and his Hollow mask.

He was probably more Hollow than Shinigami now. That would explain why he doesn't see Zangetsu as much as he would want to. Though it wasn't like he didn't appreciate his Hollow's presence. It was probably the only thing that was keeping him sane inside and not allowing to go on a suicide mission to go into Soul Society and attempt to kill Urahara once and for all as strange as that sound.

"We're here,"

Shiro was brought out of his thoughts but a sudden stop and was released from under Grimmjow's arm. He stretched his arms that were aching from being so restricted for so long and faced the teal haired arrancar who smiled deviously.

"What?" Shiro asked. He was starting to get annoyed with that look on Grimmjow's face.

"Nothing. It's just that it's been a while since I had a good fight. And since we both know that Ulquiorra ain't here right now, what about a quick spar?"

"Like I would get all worked up enough to fight you. There's no way I'm going to do what you say,"

"Oh yeah? And if I say that I'm going to destroy this sorry excuse of a soul, are you going to change your mind?"

The albino narrowed his eyes as Grimmjow retrieved the green soul pill from a pocket. Slowly, he applied pressure to it. Not enough to destroy it, yet, but enough to allow Shiro to believe that he could actually break it.

"Give it back," Shiro growled.

"Make me," the arrancar smirked and got out his sword. The pale teen was completely defenseless without the pill, but that didn't mean it wasn't going to be a fair fight.

"This is what you get for siding with that Shinigami trash!" Grimmjow dashed forward, preparing to murder the teen when a pale hand stopped him in midway.

"That's enough, Grimmjow. I say that we hear what Shiro has to say about... the trash. Perhaps he may become of use to us during the war," Shiro sighed a breath of relief and put on his usual smirk. He raised his hand to catch the incoming pill that was being tossed at him. He tucked it away safely into his pocket and looked back at the pair with an amused grin.

"Good to see that you sill have perfect timing with these things, Ulquiorra," the pale student said. Ulquiorra nodded and continued to scold Grimmjow about doing things without his permission only to have said arrancar to yell unintelligent curses back at him. This quickly lost Shiro's interest and led him to be curious about what Nel had been up to while they weren't looking.

"Nel?" When he saw that the green haired girl had disappeared, he frantically searched for a head of orange. His search had ended abruptly when he heard the normal rambling voice of the childish woman.

"And this is Pesche and Dondochakka. Bawabawa is still in the Hueco Mundo. But that's because Ulquiorra says that he wouldn't be able to live here with all us here in Karakura Town. So he's all alone in the desert waiting for us to come back. But I think Starrk and Lilinette are taking care of him right now. But still, it's sad that he couldn't come with us. Personally, I think it's because Ulquiorra doesn't think I could take care of him right," the bubbly girl said to the still unconscious Ichigo. Shiro smiled and at the same time, began to wonder if Ichigo being unconscious was an act or not. He couldn't have been hit that hard to be unconscious for this long.

"I do not worry about your concerns with your partners," Ulquiorra must had stepped into the warehouse while Shiro was contemplating and appeared behind Nel, "but I do have concerns for my own sanity. Having something that large will surely bring complaints from the various members and I do not have the time to satisfy everyone's needs,"

Nel didn't argue and asked her two partners to find somewhere for Ichigo to lay for the time being. Nel, being the nurse of the group, carefully laid the teen into the makeshift bed and spoke to him softly, as if she was his mother. Her two "brothers" had gathered various medical supplies despite Ichigo's non crucial condition.

"As I had said before, I think it would be wise if you told us the whole story before any one of the other arrancars take wind of a unknown Shinigami roaming on their territory," Ulquiorra reminded.

The albino looked up from the unconscious teen and sighed. This story was going to take some time.

* * *

"Maaan, why do I always have the bad jobs? Kill this person, follow that person, it's always the same thing. Why can't I just follow some cute girl for a few weeks? Probably be more exciting than following around some freak and his little friend for a week,"

"What are you talking about baldy? I'm here, so that makes it ten times better!"

"Maan, why do I always get the worst partners too? I'm always with monkey breath over here. Or I with some old hag, which is almost as bad you know. Even Rose could be a better partner than Hyori," That comment was awarded with a slap in the face with the usual footwear.

"What are you talking about! I'm the best partner you could ever get! There's no one better than me! And who are you calling monkey breath?"

"Hyori-san, please calm down for now. Remember we're only here to investigate a certain someone in the World of the Living. You might blow our cover if you two cause a commotion or draw attention to yourself, seeing how the three of us are far from the 'ordinary' look. After this is all over, then you can fight and argue until your heart's content, or at least until your little punching bag becomes unconscious," Hyori huffed and folded her arms Shinji had looked over his shoulder after recovering from the nose bleed and showed very mild surprise.

"Hmm? Urahrara, you're seriously coming along? Won't that Shiro kid rip out your guts if and when he sees you? And besides, we can handle this ourselves, despite our little arguments. We are the best in your army after all,"

"Why must you always think so negatively about me? Shinji-san? I think you just want all the fun to yourself," the blond frowned, "Besides, he won't kill me, well, he won't kill me as of yet. This new device on your wrists is my own little invention I made and it is going to cloak our reiatsu so we don't stand out as much from ordinary souls. Though I can't help stopping the reiatsu escaping from the Senkaimon, so we're going to have to try and compress our reiatsu. But from there, we'll use a special gigai and begin the investigation so we'll look like ordinary humans. Besides, that Hollow within him is keeping him doing stupid things like that," he stopped, "Ah, and it seems like we have arrived to our destination,"

The other two figures stopped as they heard the footsteps behind them come to a complete stop and waited for the door to open. A blinding light shined as they were shown a peaceful and buzzing town filled with people and various pets. It was slightly laced with strong reiatsu and then layered with a unique Hollow reiatsu to show that no Shinigami was welcomed in this town. An expert ear could probably hear the cries of the Hollow's pain and then silenced with a fatal slice to the head. The people, who were oblivious to these sounds and the strangely dressed souls, continued with their daily tasks as if it was a normal day.

"It's been a while since we've seen peace like this, hasn't it? Nothing this calm in Soul Society in the last century of so, if I remember right," Shinji smiled. He could practically see the excitement in the captain's eyes. Urahara wanted to lose his calm composure and just laugh. In about a month, all of these people were going to die and they don't even know about it.

But instead, he took a deep breath and cleared his mind. It wasn't the time to think about that as of now. He needed to learn about this "weakness" that Yoruichi had learned about. He handed each a portable gigai and motioned them to enter them. He quickly tracked the strongest point of reiatsu and began the search there. He had always love playing "The Cat and the Mouse".

* * *

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra were silent. Shiro had just finished retelling what had happened to him today, and to be honest, he wasn't sure if they were going to buy it. Their brains were trying to process the information as best as they could, but even with their added intellect, it was obvious that their instincts were still screaming for them to reject the Shinigami. Who could blame them?

After all, Urahara had banished them from the only place they could call home. Hueco Mundo was probably already made into a hunting ground for weak Hollows to train the army in Soul Society. Knowing Urahara, he was probably stepping on the remainder of their pride and made the place into some kind of petting zoo for little children to visit. But as soon as he had his chance, that pale throat of his was going to be wrung by him.

"I think we should trust Ichi and let him help us in the war! He seems like a good guy! And besides, Shiro mentions that he's almost as strong as Fox Face! That has to count for something, right? I can hardly hold my sword against him before he almost slices me in half!" Nel spoke out and broke the silence and Shiro's line of murderous thoughts as she continued to tend the still unconscious Ichigo.

"It doesn't matter what you think. You're are the weakest among us and thus your opinions are only equal to half as one of ours," Ulquiorra reasoned.

"She may be the weakest, but she does have the best judge in character other than Harillbel. Remember the pizza guy you almost killed?" Shiro argued, smirking at the memory. That day was certainly a strange one. Who know that arrancars could even eat?

"Of course you'll side by that trash's side. He's almost like you. It'll be a person you could 'connect' and all that crap they talk about teenagers need."

"Oh? Reading those motherly magazines Grimmjow? I didn't expect this from you. Tell me, exactly how many hours of sleep was I supposed to get last night?" the student sneered.

"You shut up! The only reason I'm not beating you up is because I don't want to clean up the mess you're going to make. And besides, those things are the only thing Ulquiorra has around here to read," Grimmjow retorted.

"You can read?"

"Then what is it that you suggest?" the pale arrancar interrupted, not wanting for this conversation to go any further.

The albino stopped for a moment and thought. A person could almost see the thoughts running around his head as they flew past his eyes. It was clear that Shiro was exceptionally bright for someone his age despite whatever grades the teaches gave him. He was arguably a better prodigy than Gin himself, though still lacking in most skills due to his limited experience as a Shinigami. So any idea the student had was bound to be a genius one.

"A test; we'll conduct a test to see if he's going to turn traitor," Shiro finally answered. The three arrancars tilted their head slightly at the reply in curiosity. At the same time, Ichigo had finally decided to wake up from his long nap. He groaned in what must have been pain and opened his eyes slightly and then closed them after seeing the blinding sunlight. He must have planned to go back to sleep or something, but Nel had different plans.

"Ichigo! Ichigo! You're awake! I hope I didn't hit you too hard. You were out for a very long time and I was getting worried too! Shiro says that you're going to be okay though! No one is going to have to kill you and then we'll have lots of fun together!" she smiled. Ichigo, who had just recovered from Nel's constant shaking, managed to catch everything she had said and was brought back to reality. His eyes widen as he saw that everyone was staring at him and tensed up. Shiro walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder, telling him to relax and that they'll be out of here soon. Ichigo glared at him, replying that he didn't need his to comfort him. He smirked and turned to face the other two arrancars.

"Give him two weeks. If you shows any signs of spying around from him, then you can kill him. If not, then he'll help us with the war and everything else. Agreed?" The two nodded, unsure if this was the wisest decision that could be made.

Shiro responded with a quick smile and grabbed the red head from under the sheets.

"Hey! I want some answers,"

"Yeah, yeah. But I'm late for my lessons. Let's go and then you can ask away," Dondachakka and Pesche waved goodbye as the other three arrancars watched them leave. Nel was the only one to verbally dismiss them with a cheerful "See you soon!". Grimmjow smirked at the thought of killing that Shinigami. And Ulquiorra began to wonder if this was the right decision to agree to all of this.

* * *

Ichigo wondered what had gone on while he was out cold. Several arrancars were surrounding him and he literally had to fight the urge to bring out Zangetsu and destroy every last one of them. He reminded himself that everyone in this world was backwards and also meant that no matter how much the blue haired arrancar looked like he was going to kill him, he was on his side.

"So where are we going?" the red head asked. Shiro turned his head to glance at the teen.

"Not sure you're going to appreciate it, but I have to go to Aizen's so-called shop to do some training. Feel like doing some sparring practice before Gin decides to make me go through one of his Kido exercises?" the pale teen asked as he smiled a wide grin. Strangely, Ichigo felt like he was talking to his Hollow and not his counterpart in this universe. He rid himself of that thought. Unlike his Hollow, Shiro was just like him. A kid who had Shinigami powers. Not some insane Hollow whose only goal is to take over his body and kill everyone that was precious to him.

"Hello? Anyone in there?" Ichigo jumped a little after being brought out of his thoughts suddenly. He took a deep breath and allowed himself to relax. After the war, he was going to sleep for a month and then maybe he'll think about going to school.

"Sure. Just make sure you don't die on me," he smirked. Shiro had only laughed at that and put his arm around him.

"I think I'm going to like you. I'll make sure to hold back a few levels so you'll stick around for a few more days," he arrogantly joked. Ichigo rolled his eyes at the comment and followed the albino student. There seemed to be a slight bounce in his step as he walked. If a quick sparing match made him this happy, he couldn't imagine what a full out battle between them would do him.

"Hey, I have to stop by my family's clinic to get some stuff for the night. You can go on if you want, it's just going to be quick stop anyways," Shiro mentioned. Ichigo didn't even noticed that this was the same path he took to go home. It wasn't like he took any other paths though. He was already horrible at names, so remembering street names wasn't going to be any different. It was also the path with the least amount of gang members at bay to jump him because of the rumors of ghosts haunting those streets.

"I don't mind," he replied and casually walked alongside the albino.

"We're going to have to get you a gigai or something so that my sister will let you live with us. There's no way I'm not going to let you stay with Aizen and the other two loony bags if I'm going to make sure you stay alive. Who knows what kind of poison he has in there. He's going to say it was an accident, but I going to know it wasn't and that's going to leave me with another dead body to bury somewhere around his store," Shiro snickered at Ichigo's surprised look. Though it was only half true and the only dead bodies he did bury were ones of animals, he wouldn't be surprised if he saw Grimmjow's body lying around and Aizen had said it was only an "accident". He continued, "And Gin is probably going to put you on the edge. Heck he's the one who made me change my Shinigami uniform to white because he said that "it look better on me" and crap like that. Tousen, well I think once you meet him you'll know what I mean,"

Ichigo nodded, shivering slightly as he remembered what Renji had said about those three. Though it was still before the betrayal in his world, the three of them still seemed like total creeps to him.

"Change your uniform? How'd he do that?" Ichigo asked curiously. He always wondered how the Vizairds wore human clothes, or at least outfits other than their Shinigami uniform and were still able to fight with their zanpaktous. Were their clothes specially meant for souls? Or did Urahara just make them? Was he even handy with a needle and thread? Did they buy them? Shinji seemed to have at least a few outfits to wear, varying from his school uniform to a tie and shirt with black pants, though it was a rare sight that he would actually change his horrible wardrobe.

"Took a lot of convincing from Zangetsu, but Gin's constant complaints kept drove me insane. He was always dropping comments like, 'You look better in white,' or 'Maybe if you bleach that outfit, maybe the arrancars would stop attacking you every time they see you,' while we were training or something. He even went as far as to go make his own outfit that was just an inverted version of my old uniform. Changing the Bankai outfit was the difficult part. Zangetsu just refused changing it to white. But after a while, he broke down too and now I look like some kind of bright white eyesore,"

Ichigo imagined Zangetsu actually breaking down to Shiro's request. The normally calm zanpaktou was someone he couldn't imagine becoming so annoyed that he would actually agree to this.

"Karin! I'm home!" The sudden voice brought Ichigo out of his thoughts They had arrived at the clinic at a relatively quick amount time. So fast that Ichig didn't even notice that he had arrived. Perhaps he was spending too much time with being a Shinigami.

Shiro glanced back at Ichigo. "I should warn you. My parent is kind of... strange. Don't be surprised if you suddenly see or get hit by a-"

"Monster!" Shiro heard the phrase in barely just enough time. He ducked and grabbed the frying pan that was being tossed at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop that? You're going to really kill me one of these days," the pale student sighed. The owner of the kitchen ware smiled sheepishly and hugged him.

"Kaa-san, not in front of the guest," he scolded lightly, though he was still smiling. The mother looked up and peered over her son's tall shoulder.

"Kaa-san, this is Ichigo. Ichigo, this is-" The albino was almost amused at his new friend. Who knew someone could manage becoming unconscious twice in one day?


	5. Chapter 4

Shiro really need some aspirin at this moment. He had an unconscious guy with the powers of a Shinigami, thankfully the were restrained so no one else could feel the huge amount of reiatsu leaking from the kid, on one of the hospital beds. His mother was continually apologizing for something she didn't even know she what she actually did. And one of his sisters were asking what was wrong with Masaki constantly. You know the thing where kids ask things repeatedly even though you don't want to answer at that particular moment?

Like before, Shiro really, really need some aspirin at this moment.

"Hey Shiro, why is Mom apologizing for?" his sister asked for the fiftieth time. For a moment, Shiro looked confused now that he was actually paying attention to their questions, but then realized that it was Karin who was asking him questions. He should have realized it before. It was normally her that actually had enough patience and stubbornness to actually annoy him enough to get an answer out of him. She was the weakest of the family in terms of spiritual pressure and of course wouldn't be able to see the pathetic excuse of a Shinigami lying helplessly on the bed. Seriously, who can fall unconscious twice in a single day?

"Some loser Shinigami came by and fell unconscious. We put him in a bed and Mom is really sorry about it for some reason. I guess it must be some kind of past friend Mom had and made into a Shinigami. Must have been a dumb kid though. His power is probably weaker than yours," the older brother lied. It was lucky that he didn't have time to tell his sisters about how the Shinigami were going to destroy this place.

The black haired sibling raised an eyebrow but didn't question anything. She walked to the couch and casually turned on the TV like this was a normal occurance for this family. Luckily it was only just Karin that came by to see what had happened. Yuzu was too busy in the kitchen to notice a ghost being dragged by Shiro and into one of their clinic's bed. Luckily Ichigo had those restrainers on before he went unconscious again. If Yuzu had come by without those devices on... maybe he should go take that aspirin right now.

"Mgh," he heard Ichigo utter. After returning from the kitchen, he wasn't surprised to see his mother hugging his look alike. She was always the eccentric type and thus replied in gestures as extreme as this one.

"Oh I'm so very sorry! I didn't mean to scare you like that. I don't think I met you before, but if you were Kenny from third grade, I'm sorry about dumping you. It's not like I didn't like you, it's just that I found someone else. And if you're not Kenny, then you might be Mike. If you are, you're a total jerk and I shouldn't be hugging you. But I don't think Mike had orange hair, or looked so much like my son. And he was alive the last time I checked. Oh! By the way, how's Martha? Is she well? Tell her I'm-"

Shiro coughed rather loudly to interrupt his mother's ramble.

"His name is Ichigo, not whoever Mike was. And before you ask, he's not like a half-brother or something or a long lost son you never knew about. I'll explain it all tomorrow. Right now, I think you should help Yuzu cook something for Ichigo here. It seems like she's having a little trouble reaching the top shelf," the pale teenager smiled, hoping that was all he needed to seal the idea to her.

Apparently she got the message to go away so he could explain some things to Ichigo and ran out the room as fast as possible to leave the two of them alone. He sighed at the over-enthusiasm of his mom and sat down in her chair beside the teenager.

"Is she always like that?" the red head asked after regaining the ability to breathe.

"A little crazy? Yeah, but you learn to get used to it. Now let's see if she found anything wrong with you mentally," the albino grabbed the charts sitting next to Ichigo and examined them with little interest. It was a precaution the clinic took, but there was little reason to do so.

"Tch, reminds me of old Goat Face," the red head muttered and looked towards the door. From their point of view, they could hear a faint bubbling of soup and the strong aroma of roasted duck. Light humming and laughing could be heard as the two chefs of the house prepared the meal. It was enough for Shiro's stomach to growl. And as for Ichigo, he sighed quietly and quickly looked away from the door.

Shiro smirked at how predictable the kid in front of him was.

"Let me guess. You're mom's dead, right? From an 'accident' you made? But it was really an Hollow attack, aren't I right?" the paler of the two winced as he saw the look-a-like tense up. He knew it was a touchy subject, but if the two of them were going to work as partners, he was going to have to know his background and how alike they actually were.

Finally the berry sighed and relaxed a bit more. He clenched his fists and nodded. Tears were on the verge of breaking, but the teen was strong and held them back.

"Yeah, the same happened with my dad. He died from a car accident, at least that what they told me. A Hollow actually killed him. Though, I can't say that I might miss him as much as you probably do with Mom. From what I could see, he's probably as crazy as my mom in my Karakura. But from that day on, Mom has been a little more than cautious and pushing into crazy territory. She probably felt your reiatsu being leaked through and panicked thinking that you were a bad guy. Yuzu and Karin are the only ones that think you're a really weak Shinigami since you have those restrainers on. I want it to keep it that way, but I know that you hate those little bracelets, so I called Aizen and said that you needed a special gigai. Gin is coming by to deliver it. Hope you don't mind that fox face coming over,"

"I sure hope not, because I'm already here!" The door swung open to revel a silver haired man standing by in a casual manner. His perpetual smile never left his face as he gave a package to the teen.

"Aizen made this custom gigai to suppress your reiatsu somewhat and conceal it while you're in it. It took a while, but I think he and Urahara from you dimension gave you something close to your real body. It may feel artificial, but it's the closest thing we had at the time. And we bought a few extra pairs of pants and shirts for you, just in case that the style doesn't suit you. We thought that you and Shiro might be similar in taste of clothing and gave you some loose fitting fighting clothes," the exiled explained as Ichigo entered the gigai.

It was stiff and felt somewhat constricting, but it was a nice feeling to be able to wear normal clothes again and not a Shinigami's uniform. The clothes were comfortable, but weren't exactly something he would wear. Dark blue jeans torn in several places and a dark colored shirt didn't exactly belong in his closet. After doing a few stretches, it felt almost like he was in his own body again.

"Perfect," Ichigo said as he got up and tried to get used to walking. Gin smiled in agreement and told Ichigo about some cautions when using this gigai. Basically, all he needed to do was to check in with Aizen every once in a while to do a check up on the gigai. Was that going to be awkward? Yes, yes it will be.

"Shiro! I didn't know that you invited Gin over! Ichimaru-san, would you like to join us for dinner?" Masaki smiled as she prepared the table. The pale man turned around and politely accepted. He took off his hat and jacket to hang on a nearby coat hanger. The box the gigai was contained was tossed into a corner as the two Kurosaki brothers exited the patient's room and helped themselves to a seat at the table.

"Today is special for our guests today! I hope that you don't mind. I like to cook lots of food for guests," Yuzu smiled at Ichigo. Guilt stung his heart as he thought about the pain his sisters must be feeling after not seeing him for god knows how long. His dad was probably doing his best to keep them happy, but he knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Don't worry. My sister likes to cook after I've been away for a while too. I guess the two of you are really similar," he smiled and mentally noted that as soon as he gets back, he's going to go home and have one of his Yuzu's home cooked meals.

Dinner passed through like any other ordinary diner. The three Kurosaki siblings told their mother what they did in school today like they did every other day of the week. But when Yuzu admitted having a little trouble in school, Gin volunteered to tutor her for no cost. Shiro narrowed his eyes, but didn't say a word. The thought of having a man like Gin Ichimaru near Yuzu, scared even Ichigo. The man was known for being manipulative and very mischievous. There was no telling what kind of trouble the two of them might achieve with Yuzu's weapon of being mommy's angel. Masaki seemed to think otherwise and accepted the kind offer.

"You really don't have to, Ichimaru-san. Shiro is an excellent student, when he wants to be, and I'm sure he can Yuzu's tutor in between his work days," the widow added.

"No, no. It's really fine. I used to tutor a friend of mine back when we were still in school. I guess you could call it me living in the past still. And Shiro is actually a fine student? This is the first I've heard of it. From his grades, I was certain that he would drop out before senior year!" he joked.

Dinner ended and Shiro was stuck cleaning dishes after "accidentally" flinging his plate over to the silver haired man. Gin didn't stay long and left soon after he washed his hair. He reminded Masaki of the tutoring time of Friday afternoon and they both smiled at each other. The albino narrowed his eyes once again. Apparently he didn't know that his mother and fox face were so close with each other.

"Shiro, hon, stop glaring at Gin and take our guest to his room so he can get some rest for tomorrow. Gin mentioned that he already submitted Ichigo to school while you two were washing the dishes. Wasn't that nice of him?"

All of the sudden, Ichigo felt the same rage Shiro had for Gin Ichimaru.

* * *

"Tch, leave it to those two to leave us behind. If I knew that Yoruichi and Urahara were going to be this eager in finding a couple of punks, I would have just stayed in Soul Society where I can just relax all day!" Shinji complained as he attempted to keep up with the two captains in his gigai. Hiyori kept quiet, not wanting to waste any energy to yell at her blond partner.

When their tour guides saw that they were way ahead of their partners, they agreed to wait at a nearby building. Once Shinji and Hiyori caught up, they were out of breath and tired beyond belief.

"Now, now Shinji-taichou. There is no need to be such a baby. Besides, I think this little game is fun!" the inventor smiled, not even looking like he was the least bit tired. Yoruichi, who was currently in her cat form, waited patiently for the other two to get their breath back.

"We've been running for at least four hours at the highest speed this gigai will allow us. What else do you want us to do? For all we know, that kid we're looking for might be dead from the many arrancars around here!" Shinji yelled.

"You don't know that. What are the odds that measly arrancars would be able to kill someone with reiatsu like-"

"Kisuke, his reiatsu just disappeared," the cat informed and prepared herself for her old friend's rage. Suddenly the atmosphere got very tensed. The captain and lieutenant slowly backed away from the inventor. The look in his eyes changed almost instantly and the strength of his reiatsu grew considerably in a short amount of time. Local spirits passed out as they were affected by the strong force pushed upon them.

"The four of us will split up. Yoruichi, take the west. Shinji, the north. Hiyori, south. I'll take the east and we'll meet here by the crack of dawn. Is that clear?" They all nodded. The three of them disappeared and went out in search for information.

Urahara hid his face under the shadow of his hat. It was disappointing that Aizen already realized the potential usage of the boy if he was convinced to join his side of the cause. Then again, he would have been too paranoid as to why he didn't guard the boy like this. After all, the child was a walking time bomb as it was. But if Soul Society found out that he went missing for more than the scheduled time, it would go into panic and he might have a disadvantage in said war. But where to start?

He took a look at the map he purchase a few hours ago. Various street names and a school was located nearby. It was too large of an area to just look and try to scan for the smallest amount of reiatsu. He wished he payed more attention during those captain meetings to at least catch the pale teen's last name, or at least shown up. Then he could just search it in a phone book. But it seemed that his bad habit was finally catching up with him. He doubt that any of the remaining and strong willed captains that actually did fight the albino and caught his name would willingly give it up.

"Um, excuse me? Are you lost? I don't think I've seen you around," a sweet voice asked.

The blond captain turned around and found a young woman carrying a bag of groceries. She looked to be of Shiro's age and her orange hair swayed a bit as a light breeze came and went. He tilted his hat a bit back to revel kind eyes as he laugh in slight embarrassment.

"Uh, yes. May I ask the residence for a young man named Shiro? I came by as a messenger, but it seems that I've lost my way. I'm not even sure why I was picked for this job," he rubbed his head sheepishly and smiled friendly. Hopefully this wasn't one of Shiro's many friends and was a little on the dumb side of the intelligence scale.

"Shiro? Oh! He lives somewhere nearby. Here, I'll take you there! It isn't right for someone to be out on the streets by themselves. There are bad people around here and they might be closer than you think, at least that what my brother used to say," the young girl smiled and took the inventor by the hand.

Urahara smiled and thanked her as they ran through the streets. He flared his reiatsu quietly, just enough for the three he came with would know to follow him. Perhaps this was going to be easier than he previously thought.

* * *

Clothes. Check. Backpack. Check. Shoes. Check. Ichigo hated the thought of going back to school, but there was no way that he was going to tagged as the punk who dyes his hair too much, no matter what dimension he was in.

"What? You actually care about getting good grades at that prison? This isn't even your school, genius," Ichigo turned around very suddenly and was prepared to release himself from his gigai when he saw Shiro at his doorway.

Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed as he sat down on his bed. School supplies laid ready at a nearby table and a clock was set to awaken anyone nearby at exactly six o'clock.

"Teachers always gave me a bad reputation because of my orange hair. I just thought I'll prove them wrong and pretended that I actually cared what they thought of me," Ichigo answered and mentally rechecked everything he would need tomorrow.

"Che. And here I thought you were a flunkie just like me. I don't give a crap what those teachers think. Leave them with their judgements," Shiro smiled as his eyes scanned the guest room. "Hey, your window's open,"

"Yeah, and?"

"There's a lot of strange people around here. You never know who might come through. Maybe a Shinigami will come by and stab you with their sword or something. Or course the possibility of that happening is slim to none," the albino smirked. Ichigo caught on and threw a pillow at the teen for making such an awful pun.

Shiro caught it before it even got close to his face and used it to sit down on the floor.

"Why are you even here?" Ichigo asked. All he wanted was sleep, but the cruel teenager denied him even that.

"That's no way to treat someone with information that might send you back home," the albino teased. His smile faltered somewhat when he didn't get a reaction from Ichigo, but it quickly recovered.

"Our Aizen and your Urahara have been thinking for the last few hours and thought of this wonderful plan. It's clear that there is a slight time difference between our world, at least concerning with events. The Winter War for you is at least two months away while ours is about three weeks. But since the limited experience you have with your powers, they see it wise for you to stay here for a little longer and train as they work on a solution. War experience and any secrets you can dig up on anybody will help you, or at least that's what they think," Shiro explained. Ichigo nodded and wondered how he could help during this war. To fight the Soul Society and train under Arrancars would be enough to put him under even more confusion than he already was.

"But they warn you not to become to attached to anyone in this universe. It you start seeing the people here as if this was your universe, or you incorporate us into your life so much that you can't remember your old one, you'll never go home. Instead, the you and the you in this world will combine into one being. And from Aizen's voice from the phone, it doesn't seem like a painless process.

"Of course the opposite is true too. If anyone tries to become too attached to you then the process will still happen. But it really depends on the bond you have with the person you have on your universe. If I remember right, you and Aizen don't have a great bond in your universe. So if this Aizen were to get attached, or I guess the same bond he has with me, the process will go slower than someone such as my mom or something. So basically don't tell anyone about you and don't learn anything about anyone here," Shiro finished and watched for any kind of reaction from Ichigo.

It was a lot to swallow, even for someone like himself, much less Ichigo who was much more emotional than rational. It would be almost impossible to not become attached to anyone for him. Despite his tough guy looks, it was obvious that he needed people around him. He wanted to protect those around him. Without that, he doesn't have meaning anymore. Shiro didn't notice the smile on his face as he thought back when he became a Shinigami. Those same thoughts rang through his head as well. It was after he broke into Soul Society that he learned that he can't protect everyone.

_If only I was stronger back then..._ the pale teenager thought to himself.

"That's it? Hmp, give it to Urahara to make something so simple seem totally impossible," the red head muttered, "Hey, are you okay?"

The bleached teen was pulled out of his thoughts and put on a little smirk. "Aw, worry about little me?"

"Shut up. I'm just asking if there was anything wrong with you. You looked like you were too deep in thought or something. I thought that maybe your brain might over work itself,"

"Just thinking about my little 'incident' with Soul Society. Probably a stupid idea now that I think about it, but nothing I can do to change it, can I?" he smirked and stood up.

"What? Did something happen to Rukia here too?" the substitute asked.

"Rukia Kuchiki? You mean that small midget lieutenant? Tch, like her brother would even let her set foot on human territory, much less mine. Nah, when Renji came by, we got into deep trouble with the higher ups. That's not to say that we didn't have fun getting into trouble. But afterwards, I went in to save him. Everyone else came too, but I guess it wasn't enough," the pale look-a-like frowned slightly and sighed.

"School starts at seven. Mom's going to probably wake us up at five though, so be prepared to be woken up very suddenly. Night," Shiro farewelled and turned the lights in Ichigo's room off before the dimension traveler had the chance to ask him to go into further detail.

The red head sighed. He didn't need to further himself into this world's troubles. He got into bed and closed his eyes. He'll just watch the puzzle fix itself. It'll happen sooner or later. It always does, no matter how much he doesn't want it to.

* * *

Sorry for the delay! But reviews always help me write faster. Tell me how you feel about this story! I want feedback.

**_SPOILERS  
_**

Yeah. All Aizen wanted was a friend.

He became Lady Gaga, Superman, Rock thing, butterfly , and shampoo model man just to get a friend, which would be Ichigo to fill a void in his heart. Kubo just pulled a Greedling on us. Was it sweet? I guess. But after years of hearing "I want to become a god NOW!" I don't think it's going to redeem him any.

**_END SPOILERS _**


	6. Chapter 5

It was raining, humid, and a busy day on the streets. He should have known something was going to happen on that day. Something strange was going on and his dad wasn't telling.

"Shiro, I want you to protect your sisters and be strong. You're going to be the man of the house now, despite how old you are. And I need you to be brave and very strong for this job,"

"Wait, where are you going? Are you leaving? Tou-san, you can't leave!"

"Tell your mother that she shouldn't worry too much. You need to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid, understand? She's a strange one, even I'll admit that, though never to her face," he chuckled. Panic rose in the air. People passed by them. Each face was seen in great detail, but not a mark of emotion on their faces, as if they were oblivious to the scene.

"Tou-san, what are you-?"

"And make sure Karin and Yuzu get good grades and have a good, wise, and smart older brother to look up to. Good bye, Hiroshi. And remember that I loved you," The familiar aroma of death filled his senses. His eyes widen as he realized where he was.

"WAIT! STOP!""

Images played over and over again. Sounds merged with each other to make some kind of annoying noise surrounding him. It was enough for the albino's head to spin. He suddenly fell down (Was he even standing up in the first place?) and heard voices in the distance.

"Ma'am, I think you should rest. You're son might be in critical condition and your outbursts might only make it worse," he didn't know those voices. Who were they? Why were they there? When... What...?

"Shiro? Where's Shiro? Is he okay? Where is he!"

"Ma'am! Please stay calm!"

"Someone stop her!"

A pair of gold eyes cracked open as the so-called parental figure cracked open the door and fell to her knees. It was a dream. All a dream. Shiro looked over his bed to see his mother on knees as if this was a drama set. The whole act was so dramatic that the albino began to wonder how she got married in the first place. He sighed and cursed the guy who was in charge of making his life suck and really inconvenient. At least today was the weekend and that he could tolerate his mother a bit more than on a school day. And his would make an I-am-sorry-for-my-dramatic-outburst breakfast, and those were also worth dealing with his mother.

"Kaa-san, I'm fine. Not dead. Not possessed by some evil ghost out to get my soul. And I'm not just acting about all of this," he said as he rose from his bed, proving all he said was true while scratching the back of his head with his eyes closed. The mother looked up, tears still rolling down from her eyes but were quickly wiped off. She took a deep breath and walked over to her only son. Shiro eyed her carefully, unsure what was going to happen next. She sat down next to him and sighed.

"Hiroshi, there's something I need to tell you. I haven't told Karin or Yuzu this, so you're going to have to be strong for being the first one hearing this other than me," Shiro couldn't help but feel a strong sense of deja vu as his mother talked to him. It wasn't often that she used his real name or was this sane and melancholic. He began to look around his surroundings and only just realized that he wasn't in his room. The walls were paler than him with tiles to match. Beside him was a machine that only now made its presence known to him with its loud and regulated beeps to match his increasingly rising heart rate.

"Kaa-san?" his voice was now pitched higher than he was used to, almost as if he was a child again. He allowed a hand to touch his forehead where clean white bandages bandages were currently placed. His eyes suddenly began to scan his bandaged hands that were know soaking in his own blood.

"Hiroshi, I n-n-need t-t-to tell y-yo-you," her voice was shaken as if she was crying, "y y-your f-f-father i-is d-de-"

"OI! Wake up! School is about to start!" the albino opened his eyes again to see his reflection overlooking him with a scowl. It took him a minute to process why he even bother putting a mirror there before he remembered that reflection was his counterpart in another universe. The same reflection that was the key to their victory in the war but also the key to Urahara's victory. And if one were to make him want to defect to the other side, his side will be destroyed. Also his mother was there ready to give him his "Good Morning My Son!" hug.

Shiro could just tell that today was going to bad day.

"GOOOOOOD MOOOORNING MY LOOOOOOOVELLLLLLY SHIIIIIIIIRRRRRRROOOOOO!" his mother yelled. He could have sworn that Ichigo was snickering in the background despite his unamused face.

The pale student silently wished that he could personally punch the man in charge of his life.

* * *

It was rare to catch Captain Shinji on a bad day. He had a policy, you see. Smile at least once a day or end up like stick in the mud Byakuya. But bring him to the human world to catch a human he didn't or would care about during on of the coldest days of the year and you can expect an unhappy Shinji. Add Hiyori to the mix and you could mistake him for a woman during her time of the month.

"Stupid baldy captain. Stupid Human World. Stupid gigai. Stupid dumb Shirosaki and his stupid war buddies. Stupid kid and his whole reason for his stupid existance. Stupid-"

"Just shut up Monkey Breath!" Shinji snapped as he trudged through the streets in his own gigai. He was surprised momentarily that a sandal hadn't met the back of his head yet, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth and continued on. When sounds of footsteps matched with his he sighed and began to feel guilty about yelling at the fanged demon and her ongoing rant.

"Hiyori, look, I didn't mean to yell," he apologized as he turned but found that the blond girl had her attention elsewhere. He turned to hear the faint sounds of children laughing and screaming. Their parents were sitting nearby and gossiping about trivial stuff. It looked almost too peaceful to be even real in the soon-to-be battleground of a huge war.

"I hate humans. I loathe them all. Every single one of them," Hiyori muttered suddenly and followed Shinji as they passed a crowd of teens coming from high school. Every one of them were laughing at something trivial which made Hiyori hate those same teens even more than she had previously

"I know. But they can't change something they're not aware of," he replied. He remembered this conversation so well, he might as well just end it in just one answer. But perhaps he didn't because he also needed to hear his own words of reason to reassure himself that this was the right way.

"They're stupid. They can just play while their world is at state of being destroying into oblivion. They can't do anything to stop us, but that doesn't mean anything to them. They rather die than find a way to fight it. It's all stupid,"

"I know. That's why we're here. We're going to end their ignorance, and make sure they give us the respect we need and want," Shinji frowned. For some reason, those words had sounded alien to him, as if he didn't expect them to come from his own mouth.

"Why? Why don't they care about their death? Aren't they scare? Of us? Of death? Anything at all?"

"That's how we used to be, Hiyori. You got to remember that. But now we're different; semi-gods you can say. We casted those feelings away, and in return we got the powers of a Shinigami. But even then we weren't satisfied. Urahara came and we became a combination of a gluttonous demon and a reaper of souls with morals. And now we're going to put in a new order under Urahara for the humans. An order that will make sure that everyone knows who we are and makes sure they all fear us for everything we are, as they should," the captain reminded her and trudged along the sidewalk.

"Gods, huh? Aren't gods supposed to be admired by mortals instead of fear of?" the blond girl contemplated and followed her accomplice a few feet behind.

"Shinji, wait. Look at that," the blond alerted and pointed towards a ball rolling carelessly down a street. Was it a test from Urahara or just a mere coincidence Shinji wasn't sure. But he sure enough that he wouldn't go and pick it up from some kid just because he or she was careless.

The owner of the ball quickly showed his head from the park and quickly ran across the street to get the desired object. During it all, however, a car was quickly cruising down said street with a few college students stupid enough to be drunk at this hour behind the wheel. The child, obviously not aware of his soon coming death, smiled as his hands were close enough to grab the ball.

_'Sayonara, kid,'_ Shinji thought and reached for his mod soul to at least give the child a konso and not let him become another soul eating fiend they would eventually have to take care of.

"Hey kid! Watch out!" a voice called out and a bright color of orange dove towards the child.

"Ichigo! Wait!" the two shinigami agents snapped their heads towards the direction of the second voice. Their eyes were glued to what they saw. Shiro Kurosaki was in front of them in his helpless human form unaware of their presence. The green pill was quickly pulled out from the pocket.

A hand suddenly then grabbed the older blond's shoulder. "Shinji-san, I plead that you don't attack and let the scene play out. Things finally seem to be getting out of Aizen's greedy little hands," the voice that Shinji knew with no doubt belonged to the crazed inventor they were looking for the whole night and morning. It wasn't a request and much rather a command.

"The red head is Ichigo, our new target. Keep him in mind and don't forget him. From what I hear, he's exactly like Shiro, if only our favorite albino was a little more quieter." Urahara whispered, almost as if they were to talk to loudly, they would be noticed by the whole world.

The car skidded and stopped. Faces seemed to put on an emotionless mask as a pool of blood began to surround the tires.

* * *

"Ichigo! Ichigo! Are you alright?"

"Wake up other Kurosaki-kun! Please wake up!"

"Crap, if you die, then we're all screwed. Shiro, are you any good as a lawyer?"

"Should we really be joking about this right now?"

"He's waking up,"

Amber eyes opened slowly as they adjusted to the blinding white of the room. He slowly rose to a sitting position and wondered what had just happened to him.

"Other Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime?

Ichigo turned his head for a second before a someone had attached themself to his still aching body. He could have sworn that woman had superhuman strength because he could hear some of his ribs crack under the inhuman pressure along with his ability to breath.

"Orihime, he's still hurt. I advise you to restrain yourself to prevent any further damage to him or at least stop hugging him so he could breath,"

"Che. It's his fault for jumping in front of a car. She can hug him 'till he turns blue for all I care," the albino smirked.

"Shiro! That's not nice! It was nice of him for protecting that little boy," she said quietly and added, "At least, I think so."

Finally the recent events finally caught up to Ichigo as he remembered how to breath. He looked around for a moment to confirm his hypothesis of being in a hospital room and then asked, "Is he alright?"

The group stopped their moot conversation and looked at the floor as if it was going to give them their answers in the most subtle way. Before long, the silence was broken by Ishida who looked the most stoic. Even the wise-cracking Shiro had lost his smirk as soon as the question was asked and was replaced by a deep frown.

"Shibata Yuichi died yesterday. His final words were 'I hope when I get resurrected, I'll be someone as great as Shiro's cousin.' We're sorry Ichigo. The best we can hope for is that he is safe wherever souls go when they die," Uryu quietly said. Their little group stayed quiet for a little bit before Shiro asked them to leave for a second so the two of them could talk. Everyone but Orihime and Tatsuki understood. The two girls put on a face of confusion, but Sado assured them that it was something only the two of them could talk about. They pouted a little, but left along with everyone else.

Shiro got up to close the door as they left and stood their for minute before pounding on it very harshly. A loud thump of bodies fell to the ground afterwards. He sighed along a roll of his eyes before setting his focus on Ichigo.

"Why did you do it?" he said as he walked back to his chair next to his look-a-like.

"Did you give him a Konso?" Ichigo asked, his mind still on the fact that the boy he was trying to save had died.

"Wha-? Yeah, I did, but you're avoiding the question. Why? Why did you save him? You hardly knew him! You know you could have-"

"What do you mean 'why?' He was in trouble and I tried to save him. That's all there is to it," Ichigo interrupted. He wasn't liking that spiteful look he was getting from Shiro. It wasn't like it was his fault that the car full of drunk teens was about to run over a kid. Nor was it his fault that he wasn't the person to just let a someone die right in front of him. It was one of the reasons he became a Shinigami in the first place.

"Don't you understand? You can't become a permanent part of someone's life in this world. That would count being their hero. You're lucky he was already close to dying. Most souls don't remember their life in the real life, but I used a Chikan just in case. But I can't keep doing that you know. Someone is going to end up resisting the memory replacement or I won't be able to find them and you're going to stuck being some kind of mix of this world and your world. And don't say that you can destroy the freaking Dangai because I know for a fact that you're going to end up there of all places. And then you're going to die and then people won't know in your dimension how you died other than me because I'm the only one who... could... have..."

Ichigo sensed he had stung one of Shiro's nerves. Suddenly he felt like a total jerk for not remembering what the albino had strictly told him the other day. But it wasn't like he could let someone die. Why was he reacting so badly to this?

"My real name is Hiroshi. It means 'kind one' or 'generous'. Kaa-san got a real big kick out of me when she found out that I had just beat up three kids who jumped me. Tou-san was too, but he pushed it aside and said that I was a real man when he found out that I beat them up to save a few flower someone gave for a ghost," Shiro suddenly said. He looked out a window and continued, "He died saving me from Grand Fisher, or so they say. When I was out to save Renji in Soul Society, I could have sworn I saw him. But everyone says it was a figment of my imagination because tou-san would have come back the minute he could,"

"My, my, is this a touching scene?" The sudden voice of the familiar fox face brought Shiro out of his melancholic mood and replaced by the familiar annoyance.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, and here I was about to give my favorite zanjutsu student a big hug and he asks me something so trivial! How mean is that? I might just cry!"

"Shiro-nii? Are you all right?" Out from the door came little Yuzu rushing herself towards her brother. Gin had moved towards the nearby corner at some point and watched. The younger sister had begin to cry and say petty insults to her brother even though he knew she didn't mean it.

Karin and the mother were at the door frame all smiling at the touching scene and suddenly Ichigo knew where Shiro was getting at. If he got too attached to the people here, he would never see the people he that still cared about him again in his universe. Aizen would kill everyone and it will all be because of him. He laid down again in bed as a sudden drowsiness made his eyelids very heavy. He made a promise to himself that he would try everything he could to get back to his world.

"Shiro-nii, I didn't know that Ichigo-san was a Shinigami," was the final thing Ichigo heard before he left the world to sleep.

* * *

I have to apology if the last chapter's explaination gave anyone headaches. I sure had some. X_X If anyone is confuse, please ask. And the hospital scene is the reason why this took so long. I had to rewrite it at least four times to make sure everything worked. Sorry about that! Enjoy and review please!


	7. Chapter 6

Something was wrong.

Sado first noticed the difference the day he got back from being attacked from that Hollow-Shinigami-Idiot thing with orange hair. His eyes scanned the room from something but got nothing was faced with the fact that there was nothing to observe. Usually by this time, Ichigo would be around picking a fight with some bully or Ishida. For any normal student, they might have thought this scenery was normal and would continue on their merry way. Not Chad.

He glanced at the two empty seats in front of him where his friends normally sat. He had heard that Orihime was out in Soul Society training right about now with Rukia. That was most likely the reason why she's not here at this moment. Ishida, on the other hand, was a totally different story. He had no idea where he could be nor did he care. Truthfully, Sado knew Ishida wouldn't die this easily and would always come out on top.

Ichigo, however, wasn't Ishida. His red head friend was more instinctive than the Quincy and thus would have gone to tackle a problem head on without letting them know. Sado had learned how to deal with this problem years ago though. He knew what to do.

Slowly, he rose from his seat in the middle of class and walked out the door. He didn't pay much attention to the teacher's shout of annoyance at his behavior and only said that he had to use the bathroom and that he probably won't be out for a while.

The teacher had no response to that and continue teaching her class as if nothing had happened. The class stared at the large teen, giving him odd looks and some gossiping about what he really was going to do. Sado didn't care and walked out the school doors as if this was a normal occasion.

Sado's first guess as to where Ichigo was hiding was the bridge. He thought that his friend was feeling guilty for allowing him to get hurt and was there trying to think through the events and figure out what he could to do to make up for it. Slowly, the half-Mexican walked over to the destination wondering what he would say to his friend to persuade him to come back. He found out that Ichigo was not there.

He spoke with the several spirits around the area to see if they spotted his friend. All of them answered "no". He believed it would have been hard to forget someone as memorable as Ichigo and his orange hair.

The giant then thought he might be at the graveyard to visit his mother for no particular reason. His pace quickened a little more as he walked towards the graveyard, but he kept his calm demeanor and walked through the crowds of people in his way and staring at him as if he was delinquent. Like the previous answer, his friend was also not there. The grave that symbolized his mother's body was also slightly coated with dirt meaning that no one was here recently either.

The dark skinned teen had only one more guess at Ichigo's hiding place and that was Urahara's shop. He was probably training to make him stronger to protect his friends and prepare for the war coming ahead. The pace of his walking was quickened to a slight jog and Sado was running out of choices for where his impulsive friend could be.

"Sado-san?" The perky voice of the shopkeeper called out. "Aren't you supposed to be in school at this hour? Nevermind that, it's chilly out here too!"

"Ichigo isn't at school. I thought he might be here," Sado replied and stood in front of the blond. For a second, a shadow casting from the exile's hat covered its owner's grey eyes but they were soon brought out into the light afterwards. Urahara's fan snapped open.

"Well, I suppose you came to the right place! Come this way. I think Ichigo would be really happy to see you. He's been training so long you might say he might be in his own little world!" The way Urahara had said that made Sado think that there was a double meaning to the phrase, but he couldn't imagine what it might have been. So he tucked it somewhere in the back of his mind and decided to tackle the problem head first. Just like he always did.

"Tessai, make Sado-san some tea! Jinta, Ururu, go prepare the sitting room for Sado-san and I!"

"Yes Manager!" Three voices answered and sounds of working could be heard in the back part of the shop.

"I'm not going to stay very long. I'm just here to see if Ichigo is alright."

"You say that, but I'm sure you're going to change your mind once you hear what I have to say," the inventor smiled and beckoned him to sit.

Tessai walked in holding two cups of tea and a small mirror. He laid both of the objects down on the table and left without another word.

A moment of silence and a single sip of tea was all it took before the blond inventor began his tale. For a while, Sado thought he was pulling his leg with all of this "other universe" but as the story went on, he could feel that this was anything but fiction.

"Ichigo is in a parallel universe inside?" Sado repeated in surprise. That... was something he didn't expect to come out of the shopkeeper's mouth. He picked up the mirror to examine it. It was almost mind numbing how such a small object was able to hold a whole entire universe within it's reflection. Perhaps Urahara should also stop reading philosophy novels. It was painfully obvious why he chose a mirror to house an universe opposite to the one they were living in.

"Yes, but the process is reversible," he answered and added, "at least, I would like to think it is."

Sado raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you see, our roles are flipped flopped somewhat in that world. For example, from what I hear from my counterpart in that world, you are just a normal human and Keigo is the one who received spiritual powers along with Mizuiro and Tatsuki, understand? And as you know, Ichigo is very close to these people in our own world. Do you follow so far?"

Sado nodded and signaled him to go on.

"Well, if Ichigo becomes too close to them and becomes an important person in their world, he will become a permanent part of their world's history and thus begin to actually exist there. If that happens, his entity will be erased from this world and it have been as if he never existed at all in this world and he would have no chance to come back here," Urahara stopped to look for some kind of understanding reaction from the giant but received none. "Ichigo is currently living in both this world and the other world. This is something that shouldn't be possible. But if Ichigo's 'essence', you can say, is still fresh here, he still exists here. But at the same time, he physically exists in the other world causing him to have another existence. Eventually one existence will burn out and it will cause him to stay in either this world or the other," Urahara explained and waited for a reaction of understanding before continuing.

"Wouldn't that mean that there are two Ichigos in that world then?"

"That's the tricky part. Because he is living in a parallel universe, our Ichigo and the other Ichigo are complete opposites. Remember, how I said Sado in that universe is a normal human? The Ichigo in that universe is the opposite of the Ichigo in our universe."

Sado began to have his head spin as the inventor went on about the science of how this is possible and why this is very dangerous. And to think all he wanted was an answer, not an entire science lecture.

"Back to what I was saying about Ichigo's existence, if Ichigo does happen to become a permanent part of that world, AU Ichigo and our Ichigo will fuse into one being. This will be a painful process for Ichigo in particular."

"Why's that?"

"Just as I said that the alternate universe Sado is your opposite, that being you are a human in that world, alternate universe Ichigo is the opposite. That being, alternate universe Ichigo can also be known as Hollow Ichigo."

* * *

"Once more! Your form isn't balanced enough! Stop leaning on your right side!"

"Then tell him to stop throwing rocks at me so I can focus!"

"Sorry Ichi-chan, but this is all part of your training! Besides, it's fun watching your reactions!"

Shiro growled in frustration at Ichigo's very poor performance. It was surprising that the kid had even been able to live long enough to get Bankai much less defeat Byakuya. Were the forces in his world this weak that they were all beaten by a kid half as weak as he is? No surprise their Aizen disappeared without a single scratch on him.

_'I at least got a hit on Urahara,' _Shiro thought and prepared for anther match with Ichigo. The teenager closed his eyes and focused on a basic stance. The holes in it were obvious, but the boy was using his speed to make sure the opponent wouldn't be able to use them against him.

The two of them began sparring after Ichigo had recovered from the car accident from saving the kid. It was only an hour after Ichigo had passed out, that Shiro finally finished explaining and giving them a detail report on what was happening right now. This was something Shiro never wanted to do ever again.

"I didn't know Ichigo-san was a Shinigami," Yuzu had said.

The scene froze right there. Gin and Shiro closed their eyes and expected the world to explode due to that statement. Once they realized that the world wasn't going to explode, they open their eyes at looked towards Ichigo who was still resting peacefully.

Shiro glanced towards his family who all had slightly worried faces on. No doubt that it was because of their strange behavior and that a Shinigami was now in their presence. The albino sighed and took a seat nearby. Gin followed the action and motioned them to do the same.

"You're right Yuzu. Ichigo is a Shinigami. But he isn't evil," he glanced over to his mother's face, which had soften, before continuing, "That is, he's on our side at least. He's not from this world, you can say."

And that led into a lengthy conversation talking all about Ichigo's conditions for living here and why he wasn't like the other Shinigami that had come into this town. The family all had questions about him that even Shiro didn't know the answers to. He just told them to ask him himself when he finally wakes up.

Of course that was a lie. He still remembered that his family and Ichigo couldn't get too personal with each other, but it relived them a bit that they could get personal with a Shinigami and not end up on the other side of his zanpaktou.

When Ichigo really did wake up, not only was he pounded by questions he couldn't answer by Yuzu and Karin, he was also told to come to Aizen's shop immediately to train for the war coming up soon. It was a good way out from the family, but that meant Shiro had to train the boy which meant work for him.

Somewhere during their very silent walk to the shop, Ichigo began telling his story in his world. The pale teen didn't ask for it, but he assumed the red head felt odd during awkward silences. It was amusing to him to hear the differences and similarities of their stories, but Shiro didn't felt like diving in to his memories and telling his side of his story. He would rather not do that for the rest of his life.

Shiro brought himself back into reality as he felt Ichigo's spiritual pressure rise. He looked over to see that Ichigo's eyes were closed and focusing on controlling his speed and attack power. Another second later, the amber eyes opened to reveal the teenager's resolve. Shiro smirked and stood in his own stance and glanced at Gin who had stopped throwing rocks at the poor red head. It had appeared that the boy once again caught the fox's interest.

"Come on! I don't have all-!" Before Shiro could even react, the boy rushed towards him in blinding speed. The white Zangestu was raised towards his left side to block the incoming black Zangestu ready to kill him. The pale teen didn't even needed to look which way he was coming from.

"-day. Always the left. You know, if you had better control of your reaitsu, you might have hit me that time. Oh, and try to have some diversity in your attacks. Just because an enemy is right or left handed doesn't mean that the other side is weaker," Shiro smirked and threw the teen off his sword.

"Ah, Shiro. I shouldn't have doubted that you were still up and able to train. How's training going?" Aizen inquired. The albino turned around to meet with the shopkeeper. His own amber eyes showed his annoyance.

"I'm not even sure how he even survive basic Hollow attacks! The kid's form is way off balanced and he does the same thing over and over again with no variation. His hold on his sword is just sloppy too. That and he has no plan in fighting. He just goes head on without thinking. And just so you know, Ichigo, **don't do it over again if it didn't work the first time!**" Shiro yelled.

"Hmm. That is odd. I might not be from that world, but it is very illogical that captains from that world would get beat by a child of his skill, even with the help of Bankai. Maybe he's hiding his full potential?"

"Nope. If he's anything like me he would have shown his 'full potential' hours ago. And then we could be finished with this and I could actually finish my homework for once."

"Maybe it's because you're not actually threatening him. I thought the rocks would at least provoke him into fighting like he should, but I guess it didn't work. Try pushing him towards death's door. That'll make him turn his around and actually fight back for once," Gin suggested. "Ya might have to wait a bit though. Eight hours of training will kill someone if ya don't take a break every once in a while." The silver haired man gestured to Ichigo who was breathing heavily and tiredly.

"Agreed. Why don't you teach him meditation Shiro? It'll calm his thoughts. I'll make some tea in the mean time. Will you like Jasmine or Green?"

Shiro grimaced at the sound of tea. "Can't you make something more modern? Like coffee?"

"Gin doesn't drink coffee." was all he said and beckoned the silver haired man to follow leaving him all by himself with Ichigo. Joy.

"Come on Berry. You heard Aizen."

The pale teen sat down next to the Shinigami as said Shinigami was recovering from their latest sparring session. The red head's breathing slowly returned to normal as Shiro began contemplating what he will find within his inner world. Lately, it's been quiet without a word from either spirit within his mind. He would normally hear a word of complaint from his Hollow or maybe a faint sound of Zangetsu's voice. He wasn't used to the quiet most people were used to.

It has been some time since he had a face-to-face talk with his zanpaktou. His Hollow was normally the one to teach him about swordplay and other techniques. The Hollow also seemed to be in control of most of the time also. It wasn't like the sword spirit minded however. Apparently, wherever Zangestu goes, the sword is very happy to be there and not in Shiro's messed up inner world. No, the Old Man would rather keep his sanity if possible.

"Shiro?" Ichigo asked, his voice tensed for some reason. An amber eye opened to see the red head standing up and preparing himself for some training.

"Go ahead. It's not like you need to talk to the Old Man anyways. Just make sure you don't kill yourself again." Shiro grinned when Ichigo rolled his eyes, but the teen didn't say much about it and disappeared in a quick flash of Shunpo. The albino made sure that the red head was training before diving into his inner world.

Before evening opening his eyes, Shiro could tell something was amiss within his world. It was something about the atmosphere around him that threw him off slightly off his game. It felt as if there was nothing to worry about in here and that this place could be his sanctuary. And that was an oxymoron itself.

Amber eyes reveled that nothing was wrong to him in his inner world. Was it anyone else, however, they might have just gone crazy. Surrounding Shiro were graves, all freshly polished, with names of various people inscribed onto them. The pale teen walked over to one of them to wipe off a speck of dust littering the grey headstone.

"It has been a while since I have talked to you. What brings you here Shiro?" an old but strong voice eased its way into the pale Shinigami's ear.

"Just need some questions answered, Zangetsu-san."

"I'm assuming it's about the recent events, isn't it?"

"You got it."

"And here I thought you would at least flip this world right-side up."

The pale teen grinned as he stood upside down facing his Zanpaktou spirit who was also facing him the same way. It was a wonder how he was able to stay alive with blood rushing towards his head every minute he stands here. Shiro had a few theories as to why his world was upside down, but he decided not to dwell on the fact too much and just accept that he was messed up in the head at times.

"Trust me. Even if I could, this place is too cool to turn back to normal."

"Sometimes I wonder how I could ever be part of your soul as twisted as it is."

"Hey, where's Ichigo? Did he forced you to come out of your little Zangetsu-Happy-Place or something? Or did you really missed me that much?"

"Isn't Ichigo in the outside world training? I see no reason to bring him here unless you want to bring my company. Though, I can't say having two of you for company is something I look forward to." Shiro could sense the sudden tenseness of his spirit as he dodged the question.

"No. Inner Ichigo. The one who's always complaining about anything and everything. You know, the spirit that is normally in control of your being in the palce. Why the sudden change of power, Zangetsu-san? And don't tell me that I have just become more powerful in my Hollow state either. I know for a fact that my Hollow powers have been becoming stronger whether we like it or not," Shiro declared. He took a deep breath after realizing what he has just said, but decided to think more on it once he found out where his Hollow gotten to.

"Did you know, Shiro, this place is getting more dusty? I think you should pay more att-"

"Just tell me Old Man! Where is my Hollow?" Shiro shouted in frustration.

Zangetsu only sighed and beckoned for the child to come closer towards him. An ominous wind blew behind them representing their situation as of now. The pale teen knew the answer his sword spirit was about to give but it would be better if he heard the news from the old man's mouth.

"I'm afraid Ichigo disappeared the day the other Ichigo appeared. My guess is that his existence is overpowering your Hollow's existence. However, you should not panic. Even though the Hollow existence is being overpowered, he is still around here. I am guessing he is in a very weaken state and probably cannot maintain a physical manifestation as of now, but he is around here somewhere.."

"Weak. That Hollow is always boasting about his strength and now look at him."

"You make it sound like his three month existence could stand a chance against sixteen years of existence."

"How come you're okay then?" Shiro inquired.

"My alternate universe self is Ichigo's blade Zangetsu as you know. But unlike your Hollow and Ichigo, we have been alive for the same amount of time. Should we ever meet face to face, I am sure it will cause a paradox and the world would most likely implode on itself. You should be lucky that it is almost impossible for me to travel to the outside world unless the two of you wanted the physically manifest ourselves into your world at the same time." Zangetsu explained.

The shinigami nodded at the new information and began contemplating all he had learned. This had meant he would have to lose a potential and very powerful ally in order to be at full power, but that was a hypothesis. He didn't know the state his Hollow would be in after Ichigo leaves. However, if he did allow Ichigo to fight the war with them, he would be a half strength at best and he doubted Urahara and his lackeys would show mercy.

"This will be a hard choice, but know that whatever you pick, I will stand by your side Hiroshi Kurosaki." Zangetsu declared and stood up from the tombstone.

The white Shinigami nodded and felt he was being called from the outside world. The sword nodded and allowed his master to leave his inner world.

"Shiro! Shiro! Wake up! Urahara is attacking the shop!" Gin's voice rang through the albino's ear as he returned conscious into his outside Shinigami body.

The pale teen irritably opened and eye and grabbed both of Gin's hands to stop his shaking. Slanted eyes looked up apologetically and stood up.

"Ichi-chan left without ya'. Aizen said that you were taking a while talking to you sword and that he could go on without you. Whatcha talking about in there?" Gin asked in a childish voice.

"Nothing. I'll be leaving then. Where did you leave my body?"

"Upstairs. Oh, and tell Yuzu I'm going to have to cancel tomorrow's study session. I have to meet up with Tousen tomorrow to get some info about the war."

"Got it." Shiro waved and left the fox exiled alone in the training room.

Gin waved back and began scanning the desert area for anything unusual. The pale man stopped when he noticed something very unusual on the floor.

A smile crept onto Gin's face as he drew the mask closer into this view. "Things just get more interesting."

* * *

Ichigo felt the eyes of various spirits staring at him as he passed them by. They could probably feel the spiritual pressure coming off of him and knew that he was a Shinigami. He still didn't understand what they had possibly done to cause most of the ghosts to tremble in fear of the Death God. Souls were supposed to go to Soul Society after death, weren't they?

According to this world's logic, Soul Society would have to be evil since everything was backwards. But the role of places didn't seem the reverse. A clinic was still where people went when they were sick and Shinigami still used Zanpaktou. Then Soul Society would still be a place where dead people went to.

Then again, the Arrancars were on the good side this time. Would that mean the Vaizirds were evil?

_Don't think you're rid of me yet, King!_

Ichigo stopped in mid-step and turned around. His hand reached for his face without his knowing and searched for any sign of a mask. He didn't think he'll be back. He shouldn't be back. Why was he here!

"My, my. It's been a while, hasn't it? I can't say, however, that this little vacation has done you any well."

Brown eyes widen to the sound of the voice.

"I-It can't be." Ichigo turned to meet a man dressed in green and an unforgeable striped hat.

"It's good to see you well, Ichigo."

"Ur-Urahara-san!"

* * *

It's alive! Or is it? I'm really sorry for the really long wait. But this chapter just didn't feel like writing the way I wanted it to. So I had to rewrite it over and over again until I finally got a copy I liked. Although, I kind of feel like it's a waste.

Here's the situation. I like this story a lot. I really do. But I kind of feel that this feels to jumbled up. Should I rewrite it or do you guys like i the way it is? I might just tweak some things here and there before I update again so I'm happy with this story but it's your reviews that are going to help me come to a decision to write the whole story again.

Please review! You guys keep me going!


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